Belinda Smith
Term Paper

        In the years following World War II and its dramatically violent
ending, the sheer numbers of texts dealing with the ideas and the
structures of the post apocalyptic world increased sharply.  The reasons
for this dramatic increase in post apocalyptic literature are relatively
self-evident.  The population of the world now realized the awesome power
that was controlled by the few, the powerful.  This comprehension that the
ability to destroy the world existed, and that the power was out of their
hands, was enough to make anyone start thinking about what would happen if
such a great power were to become uncontrollable.
        When the population of the United States became fully knowledgeable
as to just what the weapons of destruction that had been used on Japan
could do, just what an effect they had, the general feeling of euphoria
that had reigned after the signing of the peace treaties mutated into a
feeling of fear and apprehension.  It was only natural that this fear and
apprehension would show up in the popular literature of the time.  Gary
Wolfe writes of this in his book The Known And the Unknown: The Iconography
of Science Fiction:


THE TRANSFORMED LANDSCAPE

In the decade and a half following the Second World War, it has often been
noted, science fiction produced a great many works of an apocalyptic
nature-works that described a world devastated by some massive natural
force, in which the survivors struggled to revive and rebuild some
semblance of civilization.  Sometimes such stories have been termed "awful
warning" or "nuclear holocaust" stories, and the central theme seemed
clear: if man continued to escalate the military use of the atomic weapons
that had been introduced at Hiroshima and later at Bikini, he would surely
destroy himself.  The focus of science fiction almost seemed to shift from
its essentially optimistic vision of a conquerable universe to a darker,
nightmarish vision of demonic forces being unleashed by an unwitting human
race.  Even Isaac Asimov, the genre's prime defender of the manifest
destiny of technology, offered a moralistic, brief short story, "Hell-Fire"
(1956), in which the first ultra-slow-motion films of an atomic explosion
revealed the face of a laughing devil. (125)


        This idea, expressed so well by Asimov, that the use of nuclear
technology was leading the human race into the hands of the devil was
derived directly from the fear surrounding nuclear power.  The fear of
nuclear power peaked in the United States during the Cuban Missile Crisis
in 1962.
        During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the general atmosphere in the
United States was very tense.  The knowledge that atomic weapons were so
close to the shores of the country caused everyone to think about the
possibilities of war in the atomic age.  These few days in 1962 were the
heyday of the atomic shelter.  Even today, the remnants of this fear can be
seen almost everywhere.  In almost every city, in every large cluster of
buildings built before or around this time, there will be a fallout
shelter.  (It might even be possible that the same stored tins of food and
blankets could still be found there.)  These fallout shelters were built
with heavy-duty shielding and supplies to last until it was hypothesized
that it would be safe to come out into the world once again.
        The sad thing about the fallout shelter mentality is that it is
intrinsically distrustful.  If the shelter is built to keep someone safe
within it, that means that it must also keep those outside (and thus,
unsafe), outside.  The paranoia which surrounded the idea of a fallout
shelter was a byproduct of the large amount of fear felt by people during
the nuclear age.
        This fear of the nuclear age lessened slightly as time wore on.
However, the general atmosphere of fear remained.
        Now people were afraid of what would happen to their beloved
civilization in the event of any great catastrophe.  This belief in the
existence of a catastrophe so large as to be able to destroy civilization
as we know it echoed the earlier writings of apocalypse.  These apocalyptic
beliefs and the possible scenarios imagined by those who saw this possible
future were once again reflected in the literature of the time period.
This is where the resurgence of interest in apocalyptic literature came
from.
        Speculative fiction has come to be seen as the "secular apocalyptic
literature."  Frederick Kreuziger writes that
        [science] fiction and apocalypse are mutually illuminating.  This
in itself is not a startling thesis.  But the interest heightens when it is
noted that both science fiction and apocalyptic are considered to be
marginal; that is, they exist on the margin of respectable fields of study:
literature and theology.  They can also be considered marginal because they
are read by people who live on the margin of society.  Again, it is not
merely the language, characters, symbols or images which invite comparison
between  apocalyptic and science fiction.  Or better, the comparison
between the two should not stop  at this level.  What is needed now is to
trace the structural and functional similarities between them.  this will
support the claim that science fiction functions as a secular apocalyptic
literature. (14)
        This outpouring of literature dealing with the possible apocalyptic
future of the Earth was not limited strictly to America.  It was also seen
in Europe.  Russia, especially, had a great deal of literature which was
produced around the theme of apocalypse.  As Nikolay Berdyaev, the
philosopher, wrote, "There are two dominant myths which can become dynamic
in the life of a people-the myth about origins and the myth about the end.
For Russians it has been the second myth, the eschatological one, that has
dominated."
        During this period of time, from the early 1950's until the late
1960's the whole world was very aware of the danger that it lived in.  This
knowledge of the the possibility of a terrible destruction at any moment
was part of the reason that the new apocalyptic literature (in the form of
speculative fiction) gained in popularity at this time.  The literature
produced at this time deals with the feelings (the hopes, the fears, and
the dreams) of those who had to live through air-raid drills and Tippy the
Turtle singing "duck and cover."
         When Walter M. Miller Jr. wrote A Canticle for Leibowitz he was
writing in the environment of fear and apprehension which followed the end
of World War II.  His book, published in 1959, is generally viewed as one
of the finest examples of post-holocaust fiction.  When he was writing the
three stories which eventually were put together to form the book, Miller
was experiencing, first-hand, what it meant to live in a nuclear society.
        The images which come out of Miller's book reflect the general
sentiment that the beginning of the nuclear age was not something to be
rejoiced in.  The first section of the book deals with a society that
exists long after our own.  This society is all that is left after a great
"flame deluge."  The lens character of the first section, Brother Francis
Gerard, belongs to an order of monks that has helped to keep civilization
intact after the catastrophe.
        The idea of society trying to save remnants of itself after nuclear
holocaust is an idea that would have been welcomed by those who read
Miller's book at the time in which it was written.  The attitudes of the
small, ecclesiastical world seen in the first section of the book would be
that attitudes that the majority of the population would, themselves, want
to uphold in such a situation.  The idea that the preservation of the
knowledge of the civilization which had destroyed itself would be of great
use to the civilization which would, in turn, rise out of the ashes is an
idea that can be seen in the actions of the people of the 1950's and
1960's.
        The final section of Miller's book deals with a society that is, in
some ways, more advanced than our own.  This society has the technology to
do almost anything that they want to.  But, in the end, it too destroys
itself in a massive self-induced cataclysm.  However, civilization is once
again portrayed as being able to survive.  At the end of the novel, the
knowledge of the world is being taken into space.
        By ending the book with a relatively hopeful note, Miller is
showing his belief in mankind over the terrible weapons and cataclysms that
we, ourselves, produce.  This attitude makes sense for the time in which
Canticle for Leibowitz was written.  Because it was written before the peak
of the nuclear fear - the Cuban Missile Crisis - it does not have the same
expression of fear that may be seen in books written after the Cuban
Missile Crisis.
        One of the books which was written (or at the very least) not
published until after the Cuban Missile Crisis is Philip K. Dick's novel
The Game-Players of Titan.  This book was first published in 1963.  Because
of the publishing date, it is not possible to say for sure when the ideas
behind the story came into being.  But the book itself was not known to
audiences until after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
        In The Game-Players of Titan Dick creates a world that has gone
through its own apocalyptic moment.  A virus has been spread throughout the
world which leaves those infected with it sterile.  Only a very few people
are still able to have children (luck).  Those who are still able to have
children are trying desperately to do so.  But expressions of luck are few
and far between.  The creatures from Titan (the vugs) are now nominally in
control of Earth.
        The game-players on Earth are no longer afraid of nuclear
disasters, instead the threat that Dick brings to bear on the Earth is
extra-terrestrial in nature.  The Pretty Blue Fox group of game players
finds themselves further and further involved with the vugs and what seems
like a plot for the vugs to gain complete control of Earth.  By the end of
the novel it is not possible to decide if the vugs are in control, if the
humans are, or if anyone is really in control at all.
        By bringing in an external threat (rather than that of
self-annihilation) Dick is bringing this book out of the beginning of the
nuclear age, and into the present.  Because Dick is able to externalize the
threat, the possibility that mankind will fall to beings from another
planet, the book becomes more than just a text about the fear that people
are feeling because of the nuclear age.  The Game-Players of Titan becomes
a book about fear of the other.
        This fear of the other, as opposed to fear of oneself, can be seen
by those reading the book as whatever they personally feel there is to be
afraid of.  If the reader feels that the government is an institution to be
afraid of, then to that reader the vugs can represent government.  If the
reader is still feeling fear over the threat of self-annihilation, then the
vugs simply become a force from inside.  Because the threat has been
externalized, but left ambiguous, Dick is able to let his vugs become
whatever the reader feels they should be.
        This change from insider threat to outsider threat is a change that
occurred in history, and what occurs in history is reflected in the popular
literature of the period.  And speculative fiction does qualify as popular
literature.  Because speculative fiction was able to adapt itself to any
threat (be it inside, outside, or completely ambiguous) speculative fiction
has survived throughout the years.
        The fears which are represented in speculative fiction (as written
by Miller and Dick) are fears which everyone feels at least once in their
lives.  Because the feeling of fear, and the hope of overcoming it, are
universal feelings the literature which plays upon these feelings has  a
very wide appeal.  In the years which followed World War II, and all of its
terrifying nuclear aftermath, the emotions of fear centered around
apocalypse.  The fear of apocalypse can easily be seen in both of these
texts.




Works Cited

Bethea, David M.  The Shape of Apocalypse in Modern Russian Fiction.
			Princeton UP: Princeton, New Jersey.  1989.
Dick, Philip K.  The Game-Players of Titan.  Vintage Books: New York, New
			York.  1992.
Hirsch, E.D., Jr.  The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American
			Needs to Know  2nd Edition, Revised and Updated.  Houghton Mifflin:
			Boston, Massachusetts.  1993.
Kreuziger, Frederick A.  The Religion of Science Fiction.  Bowling Green
			State University Popular Press: Bowling Green, Ohio.  1986.
Miller, Walter M.  A Canticle for Leibowitz.  Bantam: New York, New York.
			1961.
Wolfe,  Gary K.  The Known And The Unknown: The Iconography of Science
			Fiction.  The Kent State UP: Kent, Ohio.  1979.